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I learnt most of what I know from here and other online sources. The actual sump part is fairly simple in terms of it working, it's all the little tricks that optimize it's effectiveness that makes it complicated.

One reason not to use it would be at the top of the bag where it says: "health warning, contains micro organisms." What kind of micro organisms? And I guess you want to use it because it says it's "washed," right? Well, in the warning label it also says "avoid breathing dust and particulates from this product." If it were truly washed, you would not have that. I wouldn't use it IMO.

I saw that as well, no the fact that it's washed isn't the case, i wanted it because it was river sand, I was thinking the warning was there to cover their legal backsides so to speak, but you're right it seems a bit off

After much umin and ahhin about this discus tank i decided to bite the bullet and get one made. This is obviously more expensive but i can get what i really want and long term it will be much better. The tank i bought was simply not tall enough for my liking so I'm getting a 5 x 2 x 2 ft tank. So the title of this thread should probably change to 150gal mods?

Anyway the tank im getting made up will be drilled, 4 in holes, this will allow me to run a beananimal syle overflow and a return through the back of the tank. This will neaten up the hole look of the tank without those PVC overflows being in there. Also much less risk of failure in power outages.

For those of you who don't know a beananimal overflow consists of 3 overflows, one is run at full siphon (not open to the air) this overflow should carry approx 90% of the flow, it is made a full siphon by using a gate valve to adjust the flow through the pipe to as close to the return speed as possible. The second overflow is a open channel duriso pipe this pipe acts to take the remainder of the flow, (it is very difficult to match the siphon exactly with the return speed). Such a small amount of flow should run down the sides of the pipe and create no noise. This overflow is modified so that if the water reaches a certain height it also becomes a full siphon, therfore carrying a lot more water volume. The third overflow is simply an emergency and technically should actually never be used aside from maybe startup, and even then it might not be needed.

I'll post diagrams and pictures as i make them to make this a little more clear

Even tho it will cost you more up-front, having a tank made to your specs is the best. When I got my 180 gallon, I had the company build a custom external overflow and pre-drill the holes for the return line bulk head flanges exactly were I wanted them. I am very glad I spent the extra money to do that. It made plumbing the tank so much easier

I would love to set pics of the tank once the plumbing is all done

I have also up-dated the title of your thread

If you take your time to do the research FIRST, you can successfully set-up and keep ANY type of aquarium with ease."Not using a quarantine tank is like playing Russian roulette. Nobody wins the game, some people just get to play longer than others." - Anthony CalfoFishless CycleCycling with FishMarine Aquarium Info [URL="http://saltwater.aquaticcommunity.com/"]